In the run-up to last weekend’s pay-per-view in Las Vegas, the UFC made a point of putting the spotlight on a pair of promising young fighters, Sean O’Malley and Mackenzie Dern.

The duo’s fights were given prime real estate — O’Malley as the middle bout on the main card, Dern as the final preliminary card pairing — and each was given ample screen time on Embedded, the organization’s pay-per-view fight week video blog series.

Saturday night at UFC 222, both emerged victorious, with O’Malley shining early before holding on late after injuring his foot against Andre Soukhamthath, while Dern maintained her unbeaten record with a split decision victory Ashely Yoder.

Both were buzzy names with the hardcore set heading into the event. The exposure they garnered pre-fight, and the fact that they earned victories, helped establish them as prospects to pay close attention to going forward for those who weren’t already aware of their upside.

While they were the most high profile upstarts to earn wins and garnered the most attention before and after the event, UFC 222 featured a handful of other young talents delivering impressive performances, including Cody Stamann, Alexander Hernandez and Ketlen Vieira.

You could even make the argument that Brian Ortega’s co-main event win over Frankie Edgar fits in that highlight category too, though I would argue that if you weren’t already convinced the 27-year-old finisher had championship potential, you haven’t been paying close enough attention.

That said, the matchup with the veteran contender and the manner in which he dispatch Edgar, becoming the first person to finish the former lightweight champion and doing so in the first round, further elevated Ortega’s profile as well, turning UFC 222 into a night where youth was served and a large segment of the audience were introduced to new crop of promising talents.

The native MMA media picked up on all this early as well, ensuring they provided greater coverage of O’Malley and Dern than is typically afforded to UFC neophytes, making sure to push their names and stories before the event and circle back to them after they were successful on Saturday night.

All in all, it was a wise approach for the UFC and the media did a great job of recognizing the opportunity and capitalizing on it. But UFC 222 can’t be a one-off — not from the organization and not from the media either.

Structuring events this way, showcasing prospects and covering them in greater depth before they hit the Octagon has to be a consistent thing, a constant thing, not something that happens with only a select group of young fighters.

As amazing as the execution of UFC 222 was — and it was terrific — I can’t help wonder why the exact same blueprint wasn’t in place and executed a month earlier at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia?

Tai Tuivasa, the 24-year-old unbeaten heavyweight coming off a walk-off knockout win in his promotional debut, manned the same middle position on the main card as O’Malley a month later and received none of the screen time and far less media attention.

Tyson Pedro, who had already logged two first-round stoppage wins inside the Octagon and is a far more polished prospect than Dern, opened the pay-per-view, but was absent from Embedded and pre-fight discussions about potential and upside.

Israel Adesanya shone that evening at Perth Arena and has become the breakout star of UFC 221 as a result, but there was little mention of him before he walked into the cage, lit up Rob Wilkinson and cut a first-rate post-fight promo.

The same goes with Alexander Volkanovski, who halted Jeremy Kennedy’s unbeaten run in punishing fashion to positioning himself on the fringes of the Top 15 in the wildly competitive featherweight division.

Even Curtis Blaydes, who ended up beating veteran Mark Hunt in the co-main event and is now slated to face Alistair Overeem at UFC 225 in June, didn’t get as much attention as Dern and O’Malley, who train alongside one another at the MMA Lab in Glendale, Ariz., a gym that is flush with promising prospects set to make waves in the UFC.

Those UFC 221 youngsters would have benefited greatly from some increased exposure through Embedded and several in that group have as much or perhaps more potential than O’Malley and Dern, with equally intriguing, compelling stories, so they should have received more pre-fight attention from the media as well.

While the past can’t be changed, the future represents a chance to make adjustments and follow the UFC 222 blueprint more closely from event-to-event, maximizing the attention and exposure the upstarts on each card receive.

Leon Edwards and Hakeem Dawodu are the two up-and-coming names to really pay attention to next weekend in London. Calvin Kattar mans “The O’Malley Position” at UFC 223 and is inching toward the Top 10 at featherweight, while Zabit Magomedsharipov has flashed championship upside in the same division and fights on the same card.

The UFC has to keep showcasing these emerging talents and give them every opportunity to connect with the audience beyond simply what they do in the cage and while the media doesn’t carry any such obligation, we do have the ability to tell their stories, speak of their potential and introduce them to the people who turn to us for our expert opinions and insights into each and every fight card.

UFC 222 felt like the start of something — something important and meaningful, on multiple fronts.

It felt like the beginning of a shift from focusing exclusively on established names and toward the next generation and it has to continue from here on out.

E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Province. Check out ProvinceSports.com/MMA for all your news, information and analysis and follow ESK on social media @spencerkyte.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.